Meal in a drink.

Many years ago we bought a VitaMix blender at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.  It was all stainless steel which meant you could put hot or cold in the vessel and make soup or ice cream.  Most impressive  was the fact that you could throw a whole RAW egg into the mixture and get the benefits of the shell (calcium) as well.  This was part of the "meal in a drink" feature:  a slice of whole wheat bread,  milk or juice,  raw veggies,  nuts,  fruit,  the egg – voila! – drink your lunch or dinner.  It was great!

I was reminded of this several months ago when Kristi at KBN mentioned that she put vegetables into the morning smoothie. 

Every time I had read the guidelines for nutriton in the Canadian Food Chart I felt I was not getting enough veggies so I started adding a handful of coleslaw and broccoli or green beans or mixed vegetables along with the usual  raisins,  raw oats,  soy milk,  raw pineapple,  plain yogurt,  frozen blueberries.  Very nice and I have been finding that it fills me up and I don't want a bagel or muffin as well.

The VitaMix is no longer – but I saw one at a garage sale once and am hopeful of seeing one again which I will not pass by.  A superb Waring blendor (note the spelling!)  served as a good replacement until I took it apart (the seal looked grubby) and then could not get a new part. 

This one works fine.

See the cherries…..

On the weekend, when I ordered a smoothie at
Cafe Creme in Shawnigan Lake, and asked for cherries as my choice of fruit, the young woman asked if I would like her to use chocolate milk and make it into a black forest smoothie.

Well………

That is why you see cherries in my smoothie this morning ……  and  Monday  ……  and  …..

I use a spoonful of Dutch chocolate instead of the chocolate milk -  along with the usual ingredients.

Worth a try!

When fresh cherries are not available I plan to use dried cherries reconstituted in hot water, I suppose, or maybe try to freeze some fresh ones now.

I dug through the gadgets drawer and came up with this cherry pitter which is the best I have used to do the job.